Crossing The Line
by klutzysunshine
Summary: Spoilers and speculation for "Closure". Willing to do anything to take Ward down, Coulson crosses the line when he kidnaps Thomas.


**I don't own Agents of SHIELD nor will I ever. No copyright infringement intended.**

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Willing to do anything to take down Grant Ward once and for all, Phil Coulson thought that using his younger brother against the Hydra director was the best idea. Furious after talking with Skye and after finding out from Fitz that Ward had accidentally referred to him as Thomas once, Phil thought it was perfect. He didn't even care that no one else - especially Skye - agreed with his decision. "You shouldn't stoop to his level and bring innocents into this, Phil!" Melinda told him.

Phil sighed. "May, I already told you that I'm crossing lines no director should ever cross. Let me deal with the fallout and then yell at me later - at length - if you must."

She rolled her eyes but waved him off the plane. Fortunately for him, Thomas lived in New York so it wouldn't be too hard to kidnap him (and yes, that's exactly what Phil had planned). He contemplated knocking on the door but decided against it and then picked the lock to get in. A still protesting Skye disabled the alarms and decided to watch this trainwreck in action. This was going to backfire and she didn't want to be here for the fallout at all.

Phil sneaked up behind Thomas and immediately knocked the man out - a struggle ensued for a brief few seconds but he emerged the victor and pushed down his guilt. "I can't believe you did this," Skye muttered angrily as they waited for him to wake up.

"As you've said multiple times. Am I going to need to discuss this with you multiple times at length like I plan to do with May?" Phil was sick of their complaining and in his mind, he was doing what was right. An eye for an eye. It was time they dealt with Ward and ended his life.

Thomas came to with a groan and clutched his head before he became aware of his surroundings. "Where the fuck am I? Who are you?" he demanded angrily before cringing because his head wouldn't stop pounding.

Phil walked up to him and held out his hand to shake it but wasn't surprised when Thomas refused to do so. "Hello, Mister Ward. I am Director Coulson of SHIELD and I'm here to talk to you about your brother, Grant."

"And you couldn't have asked me for my help instead of kidnapping me?" an incredulous Thomas asked. He glared daggers at the group surrounding him.

"I apologize but I did what needed to be done. Your brother is running Hydra and we need to kill him. Don't you want to get revenge for what he did to Christian and your parents?"

He snorted. "Director Coulson, I may not agree with Grant's methods but I'm glad Mother, Father, and Christian are no longer alive to ruin my lives. He did Rose and I a favor. Those three made our lives a living hell, and Grant tried to protect us but Christian's abuse only served to further break him apart. I realize that now."

Phil's mouth dropped open while Skye's curled up into a small smile. "You honestly believe that, Mister Ward?" His shock was on full display to everyone.

"Yes, I do." Thomas was disappointed that his brother was Hydra - and apparently running it now - but he had seen what his parents and Christian did to him. The abuse those three dished out could have broken anyone, and he and Rose had been extremely lucky to escape it when he did. And he still had questions as to where Grant disappeared to after escaping from Juvie.

"What about when he tried to burn down your house when he was a teenager?" a curious Skye pressed.

"Skye," warned Phil through gritted teeth. He was running this operation and didn't want any interference.

"Let her talk, Phil," chided Melinda. She was curious too even though she honestly didn't want to be.

Phil rolled his eyes but urged Thomas to continue. "I called him in a panic because Christian went after Rose and Grant must have snapped then. He couldn't protect us anymore after Mother and Father sent him to military school and I tried not to phone him, crying like a little kid, but Rose had no such qualms. I just wanted him to be free. But we had no idea where he went after being sent to Juvie and Mother and Father told us not to worry about it. I've been trying to dig into his records but haven't been able to find anything." He felt much better after finally getting everything out into the open but he had a feeling none of these people - bar the one girl - would help him.

Phil had a sinking feeling that his had backfired on him but he ignored it in favor of going through with his plan anyway. As soon as they arrived at their destination, he dialed Grant's last known caller. "You're about to die, Ward."

"Coulson. The person I've had my eye on for a long time." Grant smirked and awaited the SHIELD director's response. He was looking forward to this.

Phil snorted. "You want to settle this? Come and get me right now," he taunted.

"Oh, I will. You're probably somewhere near us, which means you're ready to take me on personally. Did I hurt your precious feelings?" he mocked.

"Oh, I have someone who wants to speak to you and I think you're going to want to listen." He handed the phone to Thomas.

"Grant? It's Tommy. How are you?" He literally had no idea what to say and so this was awkward as hell.

Grant's face fell instantly. "Tommy? What the fuck are you doing? You're helping them?" He couldn't blame his little brother but it still infuriated him. Why wouldn't his siblings be against him? He had hurt them way too many times over the years for them to ever forgive him, and he didn't expect it either.

"Actually, no. Director Coulson kidnapped me figuring I'd help but he's wrong. I don't know the full extent of your crimes but maybe turn yourself in, big bro?"

Grant wanted so badly to see Thomas face to face but that couldn't happen. It was too risky. "Tommy, I can't. There's too much at stake here. And you don't understand what Phil Coulson has done to me. He deserves to go down and SHIELD needs to pay for its crimes too." The agency needed to rebuilt in such a way that it didn't repeat its past mistakes that led to it falling before but he wasn't worried about that right now. And he was even more furious that Phil had kidnapped Thomas to get his way.

Phil had disappeared, seeing that his plan had fallen apart right in front of his eyes, and Skye took advantage of it. She grabbed the phone from Thomas' hand (ignoring his complaints). "Ward? It's me. Coulson's on his way to you now and I'm making sure your brother goes home because he never should have been dragged into this in the first place. This is my one and only favor for you."

'Uh, thanks?" Grant was left speechless. "Can you put Tommy back on? I want to talk to him again."

"Right, sorry." Skye handed the phone back to Thomas, who gleefully took it.

"Grant, I don't know if we'll ever see each other again but just know that I love and forgive you. And we're going to have a long conversation later."

"I'll hold you to that but I'm kinda busy, Tommy. And I look forward to that long conversation." His heart warmed at his little brother telling him he loved and forgave him, especially since Grant had never expected it.

After they hung up, Skye sent Thomas off with May and the team prepared for a battle they really wanted no part of.

None of them knew what exactly was going to go down or how far Phil was willing to go to kill Grant would. Their lives were about to be uprooted in a big way.


End file.
